Alastair Cook to ring the changes for England

England skipper Alastair Cook is plotting changes for the next test with India

When you get ­beaten by nine wickets, you have to look at the areas you could have done better and clearly we are going to have to look at our selection

Alastair Cook

The captain’s batting heroics in the second ­innings weren’t enough to save his side from a nine-wicket ­defeat against India yesterday.

The second Test starts on Friday in Mumbai and Cook has made it clear he is disappointed with his ­middle-order flops.

Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Samit Patel weighed in with a miserable 69 runs between them in the two innings.

Cook said: “When you get ­beaten by nine wickets, you have to look at the areas you could have done better and clearly we are going to have to look at our selection.

“We have a lot of quality players with good records who have scored hundreds against every attack in the world, but they didn’t deliver in this game and they know that.

“The middle order did not score enough runs, but everyone’s got to look at themselves if we want to take something out of this series.

“We need everyone to stick their hands up, there is no doubt about that.”

Bell flew home yesterday – raising eyebrows by missing the end of the match to catch an early plane to be present at the birth of his first child in England – with Jonny Bairstow expected to take his place.

But with both Steve Finn and Monty Panesar waiting in the wings, the England skipper also hinted the pair could be drafted in as the bowling unit receives an even bigger shake-up.

Asked whether Panesar should have been in the side, Cook added: “There are some good people ­making decisions in this England team and we thought we were doing the right thing for the side. The ­result showed that we might have got it wrong.”